Primacy of the Spanish European bees

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The primacy of the Spanish European bee shipments to America

 

José María de Jaime Lorén and Pablo de Jaime Ruiz

Universidad CEU-Cardenal Herrera (Valencia, España)

Introduction

For a few years there has been a discussion about who sent the first shipments of the European bee, Apis mellifera, to the New World. There is not much documentary evidence of hive sending because, on one hand, there were many difficulties in the transport of bees itself in those old ships across the ocean; on the other hand, there were little interest on developing the beekeeping industry overseas. For these reasons, the first proofs of attempts of sending bees to New World appear lately.

Until the present day, the British researchers have obtained documentary evidence of bee shipments from England to their colonies in North America dated from the early 17th century. Several Spanish American researchers believe there were similar attempts in Spanish ports. In this essay, we provide documentary evidence that proves the early interest shown by the Castile Kingdom to promote beekeeping in Antilles with the bee shipments sent from the mother country.

Renaissance

Spanish caravels shipped economically interesting plants and domestic animals to America, although the vegetal species had more problems to find their place in the New World. Horses, cows, sheep, pigs, goats, donkeys, dogs, cats, poultry and more animals travelled overseas to increase the American fauna and propagated in a short time.

During 1533, Antonio Herrera wrote his Chronicle about the discovery and Spanish establishment in Peru, and he emphasizes: "Los castellanos han dexado quanto bueno se produce en España, ai allá trigo, cevada ... abundantíssimamente Ovejas, Vacas, Cabras, Puercos, Caballos, Asnos, Perros, Gatos y otros tales, no los havía en el Perú i de acá se llevaron, i han multiplicado mucho, i hecho gran provecho, i mucho más la gallina de Castilla, de que los Indios sienten grandíssimo beneficio" (The Castilian have brought every profitable thing produced in Spain, now there are in America wheat, barley, very abundant sheep, cows, goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats and other animals which did not existed in Peru before. These animals have multiplied and spread very much, being very profitable, especially the Castilian poultry, whose profitability are the Indians very happy about.)

Focusing on Apiculture, we get to know the requests for honey and wax done to the Mother Country by the colonies. Regardless, as soon as the native bees were discovered, which produced a bitterer honey and wax, we assume the colonists started using it for food and medicine. In the same way, we know in the New World beekeeping areas, the natives paid their tributes in honey and wax. In addition, as we said before, there was a huge difficulty of sending bee shipments because of the little prospect of success in that journeys across the ocean in those old ships. Due to all these reasons, we understand the interest on overseas bee sending was not a pressing matter.

It is interesting to add that Alonso Herrera, in his "Obra de Agricultura", comments sceptical the virgilian myth about obtaining swarms from a lamb slaughtered according to a certain ritual. He mentions this in order to bring up the matter "llevar las abejas a las islas que han hallado, que llaman de Antilla, si allá no las hay, y llevarlas vivas tan lexos y por mar, sería o imposible o a lo menos difícil" (Carrying bees alive so far, accross the sea, to the islands known as Antillas, if there weren't there, it would be imposible or difficult at least).

In some territories like Chile, since the early 17th Century, it was pleaded for the introduction of Spanish bees, but they weren't brought to the New World. So it is said in the González de Nájera work: "Paréceme que si de España llevasen a aquella tierra enjambres en colmenas con sus panales, para que se sustentasen dellos, y bien tapadas, por lo que durase el viaje y camino, porque no se huyesen, que multiplicarían mucho, y hubiera mucha cosecha de miel y cera en aquel reino, así por ser templado como por abundar de varias flores" . (It seems that if from Spain, some swarms were brought in hives, for their feeding, and well-covered to avoid the bees to scape, they would multiply very much. So the honey and wax crop in that kingdom would be plentiful because the climate is temperate."

Several American authors are sure that not long from the Spanish conquest of America the first hives where brought to the colonies, although this can not be demonstrated reliably. There are evidences of British bee shipments to North America in 1625, though there are no permanent hives until 1763 in Pensacola, from where the bees transported to Cuba the following year.

The arrival of the first British bees to America

It is plain that extensive crops of Apis mellifera appeared before in the Caribbean islands than in the continent. It is possible, almost sure, Spanish bees to arrive to America during the 16th and 17th centuries, though these arrivals were not successful.

The British historian Mrs Eva Crane has made a graph which shows the relation between Caribbean islands and the date European bees arrived there.

In the graph there aren't any reference to Spanish hive shipments because, obviously, she hadn't any documentary evidence of them .

According to Mrs Crane, the first Apis mellifera arrived to the Bermuda Island in 1617 and set a successful colony, as there are reported honey and wax shipments from the island to the continent in 1622. Barbados, which was a British colony too, wasn't so lucky with the acclimation of the bees; in 1657 Purchas tells in his book the bees were eaten by certain bird, probably from the Tyranus genus. To the rest of the Antilles, the bee shipments still took some time to arrive.

Despite of this matter, there is plain the first American bee crops where carried out by European colonizers or their direct descendants. Sure enough, the Virginia Company, after taking over the Bermuda Island, started bringing many colonists there to work the land. One of them, Robert Rich, was an active farmer who imported into goats, sheep and bees. The 25th of May, 1617, he wrote to his brother reporting him "the bees you sent are acclimatizing very well". In 1618 another correspondent in the Bermuda Island wrote "the lambs are thriving and the bees too, but not so well". Anyway, it is known there were honey and wax shipments to the Western India and the American colonies since 1622, and repeated in 1679.

Evidences about the earlier presence of Spanish bees in America

Thus far, there have been explained the documentary proved European bee sendings from England to the American continent. Although this, as it was said before, there are some authors who think there were bees previously brought by Spaniards. Some reports, found in the Sonora desert (Mexico), give to understand that in the first Jesuit missions there were already bees in the 16th Century; however this couldn't be proved by the lack of original documents.

It is not known for certain when the first bees arrived to New Spain. Brand , gathering information from different sources, reports Spaniards, probably, introduced apiculture between 1520 and 1530. Apart from this, Hernández, who was in Mexico from 1570 to 1577, describes a few kinds of honey, one of them "completely like the Spanish honey, identical and produced spontaneously by bees very much alike the Spanish ones in the hollows of trees the Indians cut and gathered from the ground".

Perkins, on one hand, cites from a 1660 report in which textually is said "a swarm made a colony on board of a ship travelling from Spain to the New World, and when reached Veracruz the bees flew to land and set in a barrel which gave them shelter as a hive ".

On the other hand, Stoll thinks the introduction of honey bees in the Spanish New World was forbidden with the aim of not to damage the interest of the Spanish beekeepers and to protect the Cuban wax production as well.

With the same idea Calkins considers that the first bees arrived to the Spanish America from Cuba, where they were introduced from Florida in 1764. In the Clavijero's "Historia de México" (1780-81) it is reported: "there are at least six different bee species. The first is the same as the European one, with which it is alike not only in size, shape and colour, but in disposition, behaviour, honey and wax properties too".

Documentation about the Spanish bee shipments to America

The first documentary evidences about the European bee export to America dated from 1617 and are about the hive sending from London to the Bermuda Island. However, it was difficult to explain Spain didn't do the same during the previous one hundred years according to what the chroniclers report in their testimonies. In addition, it is plain there was an evident lack of honey and wax in the colonial settlements, both absolutely essential products for lighting, medicine and food. Because of this reasons, many scholars thought there were certain attempts to send beehives to the Indies from the mother country, as it was done with all type of animals during the 16th century.

Because of the lack evidences about this matter, we started a search in the Archivo de Indias in Seville to shed light on this question. The answer came out in a short time. It was a "Real Cédula a los oficiales de la Casa de la Contratación para que se lleven colmenas de abejas a la isla Española, San Juan y Cubagua por la falta de miel y cera que hay en ellas" (Royal Document to the officers in the House of Hiring for they to send beehives to the Española Island, San Juan and Cubagua due to the lack of honey and wax there). It was drawn up in Valladolid, 7th of December 1543.

A falta de las pruebas pertinentes, tratamos de indagar en el Archivo de Indias de Sevilla para orientarnos en torno a esta cuestión. La respuesta no tardó en llegarnos a la mano. Se trata de una "Real Cédula a los oficiales de la Casa de la Contratación para que se lleven colmenas de abejas a la isla Española, San Juan y Cubagua por la falta de miel y cera que hay en ellas". Fue expedida en Valladolid el 7 de diciembre de 1543, y se halla en el Archivo de Indias, sección Indiferente, 1963, libro 9, folio 11r.

Resulta de gran importancia este documento que viene a confirmar la hipótesis de la primicia española en la exportación de abejas europeas a América. Es cierto que no implica una confirmación evidente y completa, de la llegada de colmenas en condiciones de desarrollarse en el Nuevo Mundo, pues pudo no cumplirse la cédula o, de ejecutarse, que pereciesen durante la travesía los insectos. De todas formas demuestra la falta que allí había de miel y, sobre todo, de cera, y la voluntad de exportar colmenas. Por otra parte no es fácil que se dejase de cumplir la ordenanza, e indica que no se apreciaban en principio dificultades técnicas insuperables para efectuar el traslado de las colmenas.

La copia de tan importante documento la reproducimos al lado. Al margen se lee: "Para que se lleben a la Spañola, Sant Joan y Cuba algunas colmenas de auejas", mientran que en el resto del documento con dificultad se aprecia el apremio de la corte española para el envio de colmenas de abejas a las colonias isleñas del mar Caribe.

En cuanto al tipo de barco en el que presumiblemente hicieron estos primeros embarques de colmenas, la historiadora inglesa sugiere los viejos galeones del tipo del "Ventura del mar" que se hundió frente a las costas de Bermuda en 1609. Con todo no siempre fue fácil la aclimatación de estos insectos, Purchas señala que, como ya hemos dicho, en Barbados constituyeron uno de los bocados predilectos de ciertos pájaros del género Tyranus.

La isla de Jamaica estuvo en poder hispano hasta que en 1655 pasó a los británicos, al parecer entonces recibió "abejas oscuras inglesas". Por su parte los Archivos Nacionales de París contienen cartas que detallan la introducción de Apis mellifera desde Francia en sus colonias después de 1680, en concreto en 1689 el mayor Duclerc solicitaba desde Guadalupe abejas de las landas de Burdeos; por su parte Blaynat llevó algunas de su casa hasta Martinica, si bien las que no perecieron en el viaje lo hicieron víctimas de hormigas y otros insectos; también hubo intentos de llevarlas hasta la isla de San Cristóbal.

 

 

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[1]           ALONSO DE HERRERA, G. (1513): Obra de Agricultura, 99. Ed. 1970, J.U. Martínez Carreras, Madrid.

 

[2]           ALONSO DE HERRERA, G. (1513): Op. cit., 270.

[3]           GONZÁLEZ DE NÁJERA, A. (1614): Desengaño y reparo de la guerra del Reino de Chile, 29-30. Ed. 1889, Colección de Historiadores de Chile y de documentos relativos a la Historia Nacional, 16, Santiago de Chile.

[4]           CRANE, E. (1999): The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting. London, Duckworth, 358.

 

[5]           BRAND, D.D. (1988): “The honey bee in New Spain and Mexico”. J. Cult. Geogr., 9 (1), 71-81.

 

[6]           PERKINS, H. (1926): “Is there nothing new under the sun?” Bee World, 14 (9), 16-17.

 

[7]           MOZER, T. (2002): Especulaciones sobre poblaciones silvestres de la abeja de miel en la Florida, E.U.A. Comunicación personal.